Thanks to all who participated in the poll!! Interesting to see the response! For myself, I follow recipes meticulously when it involves any rising agent (b. powder, soda or yeast), but tend to go my own direction making anything else. Sometimes I hit a homerun, occasionally they bomb and I’m glad no else is forced to eat it! One of the reasons I asked the question is that some years ago a friend asked for a recipe (chicken stir-fry) and I said I didn’t have any, just threw the seasonings in as I went. Her response was, “I wish people wouldn’t say that!” For her it was frustrating because cooking was a chore due to some other issues. Her frustration was not directed to me personally but at the fact that cooking was no easy task for her. Now whenever someone asks for a recipe which I don’t have, I feel slightly self-conscious in telling them I don’t have one. I guess that’s my issue, eh? 
Another question I have is: when working off an existing recipe, when does a recipe become your own? If you change 1 ingredient? 2? 5? Several years ago we put a cookbook together and I wondered if I needed to change anything on the recipes I had gotten from others that I planned to submit. Maybe it only matters if you’ve copied it from another cookbook or other printed matter. No, I don’t have OCD!
And option “e” in my last poll wasn’t supposed to make sense, JoAnn. Can you say strange sense of humor?? 
You married someone who is slightly related to me in that area!!!!!
We still have a few cookbooks left to sell. I think less than 25. I’m not sure if we’re ordering more or not. They were for a fund raiser for new construction at church. Need one? Around 400 (?) recipes in an attractive hard-cover, comb-bound book for $12.99.
I don’t think I have any original recipes. Everything I make at work comes from a cook book. I’ve made pies for so many years for Yoders that people say how much they love my pies. I guess recipes can become yours when you’ve made them for so many years and maybe when the person you got them from is no longer living??
Here’s my take from having done our family cookbook…what I was told is that there really is no way to “claim” a recipe. So even though the Reiman Publications copyright the recipes printed in their magazines, there is no legal way to back that up because whoever submitted it may have submitted the same recipe that your great grandmother used, so whose is it??? =) Furthermore if 5 of us would use the same recipe, probably none of them would taste the same. My personal opinion is that if you love and use a recipe then it is “yours”. =) Should I have done my own post to proclaim my opinions or what?!! =) Have a lovely day.
Hey, just saw your comment on my mom’s site about your mom doing xanga? I hope she does, she’d be really good at it. I was just telling mom yesterday what interesting letters she writes. I left a comment on seasoned_to_taste’s site that it would be nice if your mom had a xanga so she could post some bread-making tips since a question was raised about it.